Power play, Caron's hat trick lead P-Bruins to victories

BostonBruins.com — After proclaiming themselves ready to put together a good start to the 2012-13 season, but then dropping their first two games of the year, the Providence Bruins were bound and determined to reboot the program as they bussed through New Hampshire and Western Mass last weekend.

Caron

The Rhode Island-based Black & Gold found that success when Ryan Spooner scored power play goal to begin Friday's game, and Jordan Caron netted a hat trick on the Monarchs and helped Providence outdistance Manchester en route to a 4-3 win, and a new outlook on the AHL campaign.

"I thought we played well the first weekend, but I thought we competed much harder in the second one," said Caron, via phone on Tuesday, of the P-B's two wins last week. "That’s one of the reasons we had more success.

"I think our power play was much better, and our PK, as well. I thought we killed some big penalties, and it gave us a good boost for the weekend."

The biggest boost, however, was certainly the three goal outburst by Caron, which buried the Monarchs in a two-goal hole they couldn't surmount and sent Providence to Springfield on a high.

"I got a 2-on-1 with [Christian] Hanson, and I was looking to pass, but the defense played the 2-on-1 pretty good so I got a shot off, and it went in," explained Caron of goal number one. "Then I got a tip on the power play, off a shot from David [Warsofsky].

"And the third one was a power play goal, a rebound in front of the net, so it was three good goals, and I was able to contribute offensively."

However, Jordan said he didn't change his approach to the two-game set, even on the heels of an 0-2 start.

"No, I think I was doing the same things as usual: going to the net and working hard in the corners," said Caron. "Pucks were bouncing a little bit more our way on our side.

"Sometimes you need that, and sometimes you work harder than usually and it doesn’t bounce your way, but last weekend it did."

Luck may come with a bounce of the puck, but most often teams make their own luck out of hard work. Caron said there was a little of both last week, and said he hopes whatever momentum was gained from the P-Bruins win versus Manchester and the 3-1 victory over the Falcons can be carried over to this weekend's return matchup with Springfield in Providence on Friday, and Saturday's tilt versus the Connecticut Whale in Hartford.

But for Providence, the task (after leaving the opening weekend of its season winless) was to return to practice with its “business as usual” mantra, hoping to build off what they did in training into games. With an intense week of preparation, capped off by extended work on the power play last Thursday, the P-Bruins used three power play goals on Friday, and one on Saturday to get in the win column.

"I think it does help a lot," said Caron of P-Bruins Head Coach Bruce Cassidy's hard practices. "Like I said, I think our power play was better, and I think we put in a lot of work on it the last couple of weeks.

"That’s one of the reasons we had success," he added. "Bruce [Cassidy] was hard on us last weekend. Guys like it. It gets us ready for the game, and having guys like [Doug Jarvis] here and [Doug Houda] gets the guys ready, and I think it helped us last weekend."

And of course, three goals from one of Providence’s top offensive players never hurts.